I. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to schemes for multiplexing unicast and multicast transmissions.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Wireless communication systems have become a prevalent means by which majority of people worldwide have come to communicate. Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs, improve portability and convenience. The increase in processing power in mobile devices such as celluar telephones has lead to an increased in demands on wireless network transmission systems.
A typical wireless communication network (e.g., employing frequency, time, and code division techniques) include one or more base stations that provide a coverage area and one or more mobile (e.g., wireless) terminals that can transmit and receive data within the coverage area. A typical base station can concurrently transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream is a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest a mobile terminal. A mobile terminal within the coverage area of that base station can be interested in receiving one, more than one or all the data streams carried by the composite stream. Likewise, a mobile terminal can transmit data to the base station or another mobile terminal.
In some instances when overall downlink transmission bandwidth in a wireless communications systems is limited by bandwidth reception capabilities of the one or more mobile systems within the communications system and increased data uplink load, overall transmission bandwidth can be negatively affected. A need in the art exists for effectively multiplexing unicast and multicast transmissions in light of system limitations.